The Dichotomy: Belief vs. Science

The discussion in class last Tuesday was quite interesting. What caught my attention the most were the entrenched social, cultural, and religious beliefs in various populations and how they affect, often adversely, health. Truthfully, these factors must be taken into consideration as the population under consideration is not likely to be persuaded that their beliefs are fanciful imaginations. How can one contend against beliefs founded in societal superstition and fables when a lack of education prevents them from understanding, and accepting, anything else? Surely an attempt to confront these beliefs would be unsuccessful and counterproductive and yet these same forces are working to undermine the health of the population. It is here, I believe, that we arrive at the dichotomy of dispelling superstitious beliefs and promoting modern science through medicine and public health. Can both be done at the same time? Can one be used to mitigate the damage done by the other? In the case of the Chinese, do you promote western medicine or do you dispel beliefs about more traditional medicine? Perhaps it is possible to gain the upper hand by promoting the former while acknowledging the purported benefits of that latter? At what point does the wall of superstition start to fall? Can you present scientific evidence to those who do not understand? I think these factors need to be thought out extensively before considering how best to approach health problems around the globe. It is reasonable to assume that harmful societal beliefs in superstition, religion, and culture will not change overnight. This may present short-term global health outreach organizations with the task of developing campaigns that uncannily manage to promote health while distancing themselves from the beliefs of the population. Surely this is a matter of great importance; one that should not be taken lightly.

Why Culture matters in International Health

What does health mean? In the first class, we discussed this basic but vital question. I was enlightened by your wonderful thoughts all. Also, I think the environment or context in which people’s experiences occur perhaps largely influence their conceptualization of health. For example, the poor, who is struggling with survival and food shortage, might not able to expand the scope to the level of social well-being, such as involvement in the social network. More importantly, why do we talk about the meaning of health? The way in which people conceptualize health, I think, indicate their focus on daily life, current status, their expectation, perceived abilities required in expected life, and tendency of behavior. If people perceive the gap between the current status and expectation towards health, they might adopt different degree of behavior to close the perceived gap. However, the extent that people perceive the gap, the willingness, and abilities of changing behavior, also are influenced by multiple determinants. Among the determinants which are always being debated in social science, cultural force - in the practice of international health - probably is one of the most influential factors on health.  

Culture nurtures a population or a group how to think, how to feel, how to behave, and how to interact. As we live our daily lives, we might be unaware of the culture in most of time. But the thing changes when positioned in international health. So, what is international health? Why is culture important in international health? Based on what I have read so far, I think international health, or global health, transcends the boundaries of nations, focusing on human health in worldwide perspective, with the main goal of improving health outcome, diminishing inequalities, preventing diseases which threat human all over the world (Macfarlane et al., 2008; HM Government, 2008). I think an important point here is that disregarding national borders in international health does not mean ignoring national differences, but rather taking the complex context in local and global into account. In this sense, cultural beliefs/factors are essentially accounting for international health outcomes, since the populations from different countries have their own shared belief systems to direct their action and experience. Thus, we need to develop cultural competence in international health research and practice, in order to effectively develop interventions which consistent with target audience's values across cultures in the world, ultimately improving health outcomes.However, I was thinking one question, in international health practice, how do we, as outsiders, truly get involved in other countries' health issues?

I found the term culture in international health very interesting deriving from my personal experience. As an international student in the U.S., I always encounter culture shock in my life.  As one simple example, I am surprised that people in America like cold beverage with ice very much. In Chinese culture, people think eating too much “cold” food might easily cause disorder or imbalance to the body, such as stomachache or diarrhea. Specifically, if one had a cold, or other “cold” disease, he/she would better not to eat “cold” food such as watermelon. Otherwise the illness will aggravate. Hot - cold is an art in traditional Chinese medicine system. How could we achieve our goals in international health research and campaign if we neglect these kinds of solid cultural norms in different countries? Furthermore, we know culture is not the only key factor in international health. I believe there are many other determinants need to be deeply identified and explored, such as economic policies in different countries, political force, and structural violence which tortures people slowly through depriving their fundamental needs.

Going back to the original question: what does health mean? To me, I think health is not only absence of disease in physical, mental, and social aspects, it also means hope, and desire. For instance, in Chinese culture, people believe if the balance between spirit and body is broken, they might be ill. What’s more, people who embrace hope would gain more energy and motivation to strive, to fight, and to seek a better future. There was an old saying in China: vegetable which has no heart would perish, people who have no hope would die. No hope no health. Both of them are tightly related. People from diverse cultures in the global world have diverse meaning-making processes towards health. Thus, how do we, as researchers, produce hope for people, or develop strategy that consistent with their values and situations in international health issues? The long journey starts...

Another Hans Rosling's video clip

This is a similar video clip with the guy we watched through the TED talks released by BBC.

I watched this video clip a couple of years ago and was impressed by its splendid visualization and Hans Rosling's unique style of speech.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9JP777fdH0

FYI: Tip for reading material of Ch. 1 Skolnik

For those who ordered the book through the Internet (Amazon etc.) like me, the publisher provides samples of PDF for just chapter 1 and 2. While waiting for the delivery, we can read at least chapter 1 for the next week class and here is the link,

http://samples.jbpub.com/9780763797515/97515_ch01_5944.pdf

See you guys next week.

Johnny

Yesterday was the first meeting of the class and its a good team to work with, learn, reflect and apply different concepts of Global health. International Health is a layered and fascinating enterprise. Many disciplines individually and together contribute to the global health scene. One of the key strengths of a global health student is to be able to keep on reading the ever increasing knowledge and insights on global health and contribute to the scene by his/her own skill sets. The problems are real and we need real, committed efforts to achieve a degree of success.

This BLOG is about our reflections on Global Health. Discussions about global health has become an interesting area due to the complex landscape of international health systems, organizations, relations and delivery mechanisms. The number of players in global health is also increasing daily. Further, global health is not just about addressing health issues anymore but a lot more than that. The hope is to work together in this class, learn and analyze global health imperatives, strengthen our global health credentials and develop a good research proposal addressing some issues on global health.